Storm Delays Recliner Delivery But Pleases Kids, Dogs

A frustrated George Aull sat in the cab of the La-Z-Boy delivery truck under a steady sleet Thursday waiting for the Hampton police officer to complete the accident report.

Aull was one of the many victims of the winter blast.

The 35-year-old truck driver was delivering a recliner to a house on Briarfield Road when the back wheels skidded off the road and into a ditch a few houses from the customer's home.

A wrecker towed the leased truck from the ditch across from Janet Drive, leaving behind a 3-foot crater in the snow.

"It's just bad out there," Aull said, shaking his head.

By 1 p.m., the heavy snow had turned to slush.

This would have been Aull's second delivery of the day. He left Virginia Beach around 9 a.m. and made his first delivery in Norfolk.

He found the driving treacherous.

"Most of the two- and three-lane streets have only one passable lane," he said.

Ann Dowless took the news that she would have to wait another day or two for her recliner in stride.

"I wasn't really looking for it today anyway, and I think it says a lot for them to try to deliver furniture on a day like this," she said.

"Thanks for letting me know where my chair is. I guess it depends on Mother Nature as to when they get it here."

A Hampton police officer charged Aull with reckless driving and not having his driver's license.

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Brothers Tom and Terry Swonger, from Merritt Island, Fla., imagined a quaint family vacation when they made plans to visit Williamsburg for New Year's week.

They wanted winter weather and even hoped for snow. They got what they wished for.

"We're out of our minds," said Terry, who was attempting to fix a frozen pipe on his motor home.

Once the pipe was fixed, they weren't going to stay motorhome-bound.

They planned to make the most of Thursday's winter wonderland by walking along Colonial Williamsburg's Duke of Gloucester Street.

"We want to see how the old-timers dealt with the snow," Tom said.

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Mark and Julie Kiepke walked down the streets of Hiden in Newport News on Thursday, tugging a sled that bore their 2-year-old son, Grant.

He wasn't happy that his parents stopped for a moment to chat. He tried to pull the sled himself but slipped and fell in the snow.

"We made a snowman this morning and made snowballs and threw them," said Mark Kiepke, who moved to the Peninsula from Cleveland.

He owns a window-cleaning business and took the day off. Julie Kiepke works in the Williamsburg library, which was closed Thursday.

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Mary Helen Thomas-Jackson of Hampton woke up at 5:30 a.m. Thursday pleased to see her newspaper in front of her home despite the wintry weather.

She grabbed it, used it to dust some snow off her sport-utility vehicle, and settled in for a morning read.

Soon the phone started ringing.

Her girlfriends and she started talking about what they were going to do while the snow covered the region. Basically, she said with a chuckle, the response was: "Look at it."

"I just love it," Thomas-Jackson said. "It's a wonderful sight."

It wasn't going to keep her inside, though.

"I have a four-by-four," she said. "And I hope it will go."

After paying some bills, she was going to a girlfriend's for lunch.

She planned to return home by dark to light a fire and read a book.

"We don't get snow that often," she said. "You have to enjoy it when you get it."

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While historic sites in Jamestown and Yorktown were closed Thursday, most of Colonial Williamsburg's daytime programs remained open for business.

Out-of-town visitors could still be seen braving the winter weather on Duke of Gloucester Street.

Some threw snowballs or walked their dogs along the 18th-century snow-covered buildings.

Others just enjoyed a relaxing day in the Historic Area -- minus the big crowds.

"We've just enjoyed being out and walking in the snow," said Lola Nation, who came to Williamsburg with her husband, Ray, and 12-year-old daughter, Anna.

The family from Carters Bill, Ga., arrived Wednesday and spent Thursday morning at the Governor's Palace.

"It's just beautiful," Nation said. "It's like walking in a picture postcard."

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Williamsburg-James City County Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Rich Rizk was loving the snow as much as any school kid, his pleasure enhanced because he was experiencing it through the joy of his 19-month-old daughter, Victoria, and the family's chocolate Labrador retriever, Buster.

Rizk was scheduled to be in court at 8 a.m. but got a call at home at 5 a.m. from General District Judge J.R. Zepkin, saying court was closed for the day.

A few hours later, Buster was jumping around in the snow, rolling in it and eating it.

"He was going nuts," Rizk said.

Victoria also was fascinated with the white stuff. She was bending down, trying to pick it up and chasing Buster.

She had seen snow once before, when the family visited her aunt in Albany, N.Y., last Christmas, but this was the first time she really got to go out and play in it.